|
THE DAY ON
TRACK
Max Verstappen took his 27th F1 pole position, his seventh this year. Even
if that looked very predictable based on yesterday’s performance, the way it
was achieved and the source of the threat to the Dutchman’s position was
certainly surprising. The Red Bull driver had to push hard all the way to
the very end to get ahead of Land Norris’ McLaren, the Englishman delivering
a great performance to claim second place ahead of his team-mate Oscar
Piastri, third.
The track was damp for the start of qualifying, with sporadic light rain.
Five drivers – the two Ferraris, the two Haas and Sargeant in the Williams -
started off with an out-in lap on intermediates, while the rest began on
Soft tyres. FP3 looked different as it had started in the dry, with drivers
running all three slick compounds and then on a track that got progressively
wetter, all drivers got a chance for a more in-depth assessment of the
intermediate tyres.
The best time of the day, a 1.26.720 was in line with our earlier
simulation, given that it was just 20 hundredths slower.
On hand to present Max Verstappen with the Pirelli Pole Position Award was
Paulo Dybala, the AS Roma forward and a footballing world champion as part
of Argentina’s winning team in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. |
|
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“It was a busy, exciting and interesting day, as is often the case when
track conditions keep changing rapidly. In the last free practice session,
we saw drivers mainly doing laps with a low fuel load: the few who tried to
gather data on tyre behaviour over a longer distance, running with more fuel
on board, did not have much time to do so as the rain arrived. But this did
allow them to learn more about the intermediate tyre and to calculate the
crossover time to slicks (112%) on a demanding track like Silverstone and
from the comments we have received from the teams and drivers, everything
seems to be in line with expectations, both in terms of warm-up and car
balance.
Track conditions improved rapidly throughout qualifying as it gradually
dried out, with the order changing constantly right up to the chequered
flag. Everyone used the Soft tyres and the C3 proved to have excellent
warm-up, even though air and track temperatures were considerably lower than
yesterday’s, also considering that drivers chose to wait several minutes for
the green light, sitting in the fast lane in the pits, therefore without the
benefit of the blankets.
Tomorrow’s race should be run in the dry, although the forecast here is
traditionally a bit haphazard. In terms of strategy, the C3 presents itself
more and more as a viable choice and so a two-stop is probably the quickest
option. That means we can expect to see different choices between the teams
leading to more excitement and uncertainty.” |
